Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Proud Parent Moment

      So as you all know, I have been struggling with getting Vesta in the trailer. On Saturday I spent a solid 45 minutes on getting her to just put her head in the trailer. At the end we were all fed up and ready to put it aside. I intended to work with her yesterday, but the weather proved to be terrible here in Northern Nevada.
      Today, we caught a slight break in the weather, I seized the opportunity. I went outside with a positive attitude and hoped for the best. Vesta led easily up to the trailer and put her head in, so far so good. I tried to urge her in but the step up was too daunting for her. So I decided to walk her around a bit after she put her head in. After our short little break, my dad put a decent sized board inform of the trailer. This board would serve as a step up for her.
      We tried again and she stepped up n the board and stretched a front leg and pawed the bottom of the trailer. She did this 3 or 4 more times. I walked her around again as a reward. The next time, she walked up fairly easily. I asked for her to take a step and low and behold she took a step in. She eventually put both front feet in. I let her relax then had her back out. Another rewarding walk later and we were ready to try for the full thing. I asked her to get in and she put two feet in. I urged her some more and waited about a minute, then she gradually picked up a back foot and put it in. Once the one back foot was in the other went in. She went in the trailer! She also found a nice flake of hay sitting in there.
        We let her rest in the trailer, she was relaxed and very, very well behaved. After about 10 minutes we had her back out, which she did surprisingly well! We went on a short walk again. I wanted to reinforce the loading so I had her load, relax, and back out two more times. She wasn't as well behaved, but still got in. It was such a fantastic day! Now I can relax about training and do some fun stuff such as practicing with having a saddle on ( I won't sit on her of course,) jumping, and other fun obstacles! Maybe even some bowing!

We managed to snap a few pics!

Biggest moment of relief ever! I was so happy and so proud. I can't believe I was actually able to train her to do this. It has made everything worth while.
           
A fun picture. my dad was lucky enough to snap this. He captioned this
"She 'blew you away' once she got in."



Alright so I may have been blinking, but I love this picture anyway!





Proud parent 
            moment . . . 










She constantly puts 
            a smile on my face.
My wild best friend.

1 comment:

  1. Yay, Vesta!! What a great story!! Good going, Rosa. It sounds like persistence won the day.

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